Mobile App in Delaware Empowers Young Adults with Special Healthcare Needs (DE UCEDD)

May 18, 2015

Healthy Transitions is a new mobile application designed by the University of Delaware's Center for Disabilities Studies to help young adults with special healthcare needs build skills needed to gain independence and manage their own healthcare. The app features videos that explain how to handle real life scenarios and an interactive game to reinforce the ideas presented in the videos. The videos are categorized into four sections; healthcare, insurance, healthy lifestyles and relationships.

The app is geared toward young adults and uses instructional videos (featuring young adults) to demonstrate basic skills and ideas such as: making a doctor's appointment, scheduling transportation, making healthy food choices, being assertive, understanding health insurance and many others. After viewing the video, the app features a game to support the ideas from the videos. The user collects a digital badge (star) each time he/she views a video and completes the quiz.

The Healthy Transitions app is easy to use and is available for free on iTunes and Google Play. CDS collaborated on the development of the app's content with Healthy Transitions New York, Parent Information Center of Delaware, Delaware Family Voices and Dietary Directions, Inc. Funding came from the Delaware Division of Public Health through a grant from the federal Health Resource and Service Administration. More information is available from Family SHADE at http://www.familyshade.org/agencies/healthy-transitions-mobile-app/ Download the Healthy Transitions App for FREE on iTunes or Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=healthy%20transitions